Accountable politics

We think that politicians should be directly answerable to you. In South Africa you do not vote for an MP who you can call to account when the government acts against your interests. Rather you vote only for a party, which then appoints a certain number of MPs, depending on their share of the vote.

This means MPs are answerable to party leaders and not to you and this is the main reason why many political parties support policies and take decisions that directly threaten your future and that of your family.

To put the power back in your hands, we advocate for Parliament to be divided into an upper and a lower house where the MPs in the lower house will be elected directly out of community constituencies and be answerable only to the people who elected them.

We also advocate giving far greater federal powers to provincial and local governments so that they can adopt laws and policies that reflect the best interests of people who live in those communities.